


Pink and Black and Blue (For You)

by Polomonkey



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Bruises, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, Romance, Sexual Content, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-03 20:03:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14576592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polomonkey/pseuds/Polomonkey
Summary: When he met his soulmate – if he met his soulmate – they were going to have some serious apologising to do.Arthur's one of the unlucky few with a rather unfortunate soulmate connection - they share bruises. And his soulmate just happens to be the clumsiest person in the world. Between that and Morgana's attempt to set him up with every bruised man she comes across, it's lucky he has friendly IT tech Wizard to keep him sane...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rogue37](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue37/gifts).



> The lovely Rogue37 very generously bid on a fic from me for a charity auction with a soulmate bruises au prompt and definitely did not expect the hideously long wait ahead! I am so sorry it's taken so long and thank you so so much for your patience, you're a gem and I really appreciate it <3
> 
> Huge thanks to Clea for all the advice and for being such a patient sounding board while I was on the struggle bus!
> 
> Title comes from this [cute song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HRCacAQ-4). This first chapter has no real adult content but sex is incoming in the next chapter, be aware!

Arthur glared at his face in the mirror.

Only seconds earlier he had been taking one final glance before he left the house, to make sure his bowtie was straight and his hair was lying flat. His father’s sixtieth birthday was anything but a casual affair and Arthur knew he needed to look the part.

Which he had, up until about five seconds ago, when his clumsy oaf of a soulmate had struck again. The middle of Arthur’s forehead was rapidly reddening and the swelling had already begun. It looked like he was going to have a nice prominent egg on his head by the time he arrived.

When he met his soulmate – _if_ he met his soulmate – they were going to have some serious apologising to do.

Everyone knew there were various ways a soulkin connection manifested. Once a person turned eighteen, they became hyper attuned to any changes that might denote their soulmate link. A lot of people experienced nothing at all. Some had connections so minor it took years to spot – getting itches at the same time or sneezing when the other sneezed. But the stories of those with more noticeable connections were the most popular – with magazines and blogs and reality TV shows dedicated to the various adorable ways people had met their match.

Arthur had hoped he might be one of them. Something subtle, yet sweet, like sharing freckle patterns. Something to tide him over with good feelings until the lucky day he met his soulmate in person.

Then he woke up on his eighteenth birthday with a garish bruise on his hip he had no memory of getting and a quick trip to Gaius’ practice had confirmed the diagnosis.

SSTC. Sympathetic Soft Tissue Contusion. Or to put it in layman’s terms – bruise sharing. And it was clear pretty fast that Arthur’s soulmate bruised easily. And often.

Arthur had been worried at first. What if his soulmate was being abused? But frequent check-ins with Gaius had assured him the pattern of the bruises didn’t suggest anything sinister. They were always superficial, and often to the shin or elbow, and there were never anything like hand prints or finger marks.

It wasn’t only that, though. Arthur didn’t know if this was normal and he’d never quite dared to ask Gaius, but usually the appearance of each new bruise was accompanied by a… feeling. Just a brief flash of emotion, always entirely alien to whatever Arthur was feeling at the time. He was fairly certain that - rare though the notion might be even in the soulkin annals - he was experiencing a split second of his soulmate’s emotions.

And he was relieved to find they never seemed frightened, or cowed. It was usually a feeling of frustration, sometimes of amusement, sometimes something that felt like rueful acceptance. All of which seemed to suggest a habitual clumsiness on his soulmate’s part rather than anything more worrying. Only once had he felt a sense of genuine distress – the black eye from February – but the accompanying rush of anger and adrenaline led Arthur to think it more likely a fight than a beating. Not that he didn’t fret about it for a while anyway.

And a fight in itself was alarming enough! The other end of the spectrum was that his soulmate was some kind of angry brawler, or at the very least extremely careless with their own personal safety. And careless with Arthur’s appearance too, which gave him quite the hump in the early days. He’d gotten revenge as best he could in uni – joining the rugby team and attempting to make as many marks on his soulmate as his soulmate was making on him. But he preferred the gym really and after uni all that fizzled out. At the age of twenty eight, he’d well and truly outgrown his bruising days. All he wanted now was to actually meet his soulmate and start their lives together.

But where the hell were they?

 

***

 

At least his job at his father’s company took up enough time that he didn’t spend it all moping about his soulmate. It was fairly interesting work as well, even if he could have done without being in such close proximity to his evil sister. Still he had to admit they made a good team and things generally ran pretty smoothly on their floor.

Unless the bloody computer system collapsed, like it had done on this particularly Tuesday afternoon.

Arthur watched in horror as his spreadsheet disappeared, his monitor turning the ugly shade of blue that spelt total system meltdown.

“No, no, no,” he said aloud, tapping at the keyboard frantically. “I have to present these figures to the board in ten minutes!”

“I’m sure you’re aware talking to yourself is a sign of madness,” Morgana said from the door and Arthur resisted the urge to hiss at her.

“My computer’s died!”

“So call IT,” Morgana said before gliding away, supremely unconcerned.

Arthur didn’t normally like admitting defeat that easily when he could have a go at fixing the problem himself, but time was of the essence. He grabbed his phone and jabbed in the number.

“Hello, you’ve reached the IT helpdesk,” a friendly voice said. “How can I help?”

“Blue screen of death!” he gabbled then blushed, because he normally had slightly more manners than that, whatever Morgana intimated. “I mean, hi. Sorry. My computer died and I was working on this spreadsheet and I have to take it to a meeting in ten minutes and, yeah, slightly freaking out here.”

The guy laughed. It was a nice laugh actually, as warm as his voice.

“Don’t panic, I’m a veteran of the blue screen of death wars.”

Arthur calmed a little.

“We lost a lot of good men in that conflict,” he said, oddly hoping to hear the man laugh again. He was rewarded with another throaty chuckle.

“Now I hate to sound patronising, but would you mind turning it off and on? You’d be surprised how much that fixes.”

“But won’t I lose the spreadsheet?”

“I can recover it for you, no worries. Just power down and we’ll take it from there.”

To Arthur’s great relief, it all worked exactly as the man said.

“You’re a genius!” Arthur said, staring in amazement at his restored spreadsheet. “Why have I never spoken to you before?”

“I only started here last week.”

“Well you’ve made a friend for life in me. You’re, like, magic or something.”

“Funny you should say that.”

“Why?”

“My nickname down here is Wizard. Not that I got it for being good at computers…”

Arthur was about to ask what that meant when he saw Morgana gesturing at the window.

“Ah I’ve got to go! But I can call you up if this happens again and ask for Wizard?”

The man laughed.

“Go ahead. Anything for a fellow veteran.”

And oddly enough, he had cause to ring Wizard again the very next day. His CRM was acting up and Wizard talked him through fixing it, and had him laughing out loud with a story of a scam email from his last office. Then on Thursday he needed advice on some new software he was installing, then the Tuesday after it was a password issue, and by the time Friday rolled around he found himself reaching for the phone with a grin, already looking forward to chatting with the other man again.

“What’s up, Arthur?” Wizard said immediately.

Arthur started.

“How did you know it was me?”

“I added you to my caller ID, seeing as you basically call me every day,” Wizard said merrily.

“I do not call you every day!”

“Arthur, you’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to an IT regular. I feel like a barman pouring your usual, except in this case your usual is a stern lecture of stop turning the bloody virus scanner off.”

“It slows my computer down,” Arthur objected half-heartedly. “Anyway I never worked in a bar, do people actually have ‘usuals’?”

“I have, and they do,” Wizard confirmed. “Usually eighty year old men who want a triple whiskey and God help you if you under-pour.”

“No one likes an under-pourer.”

“We had spirit measures! I was bound by the rules!”

“So you’re telling me you never gave the pretty girls an extra top up?”

“No, but the pretty boys sometimes got one,” Wizard said and Arthur barked out a surprised laugh, a warmth spreading in his stomach. It was always nice to talk to someone who shared his preferences – the office was sadly lacking in queer men in Arthur’s opinion (not withstanding Daegal from Comms who turned red as a lobster every time Arthur so much as said hello to him).

“Those eighty year old men?” he said sagely, and Wizard snorted.

“You got me, I like ‘em elderly. Actually, I kind of miss bar work sometimes.”

“Yeah?”

“Meeting different people was nice. I feel a bit like a troll confined to a dungeon down here sometimes.”

His voice took on a mischievous edge.

“Though I suppose that’d make you a princess in a tower.”

“Oi!” Arthur protested.

“A prince, then,” Wizard said and Arthur could tell he was grinning.

“I’ll stick with Campaigns Manager, thank you, although I don’t mind the idea of people curtseying to me.”

“Course you don’t.”

After Wizard had walked him through the Outlook update, Arthur found he didn’t want to hang up the phone quite yet.

“Any plans for the weekend?”

“My mum’s in town so I need to clean my house from top to bottom, and also bribe my roommate to stop walking around in his ratty underwear.”

“Nice.”

“Trust me, it isn’t. Sometimes his girlfriend gets in on the act too and I end up feeling like I’m in some softcore porno with extremely low production values.”

“You should live alone like I do and then the only one walking round in underwear is you.”

“Tempting. I hope yours isn’t ratty though.”

“Only Calvin Klein’s finest, I assure you.”

If Arthur didn’t know better, he’d say they were flirting. But how could you flirt with someone you’d never seen face to face? Still, he couldn’t say he minded. The way the rest of his love life was going, a bit of flirtatious banter was frankly a relief.

Because to make matters much _much_ worse, Morgana had taken it upon herself to “help” Arthur. Helping in this instance meant sending every bruised man she’d ever crossed paths with Arthur’s way. A kind thought, perhaps, but it quickly transpired that the kind of men who walked around with visible bruises didn’t always make the best of dates.

“Come and get me this instant,” Arthur hissed into the phone.

“Where are you?” Morgana said, voice crackly. “It’s so loud.”

“I’m in a biker bar!” Arthur said, teetering on the edge of hysteria. “And everyone here is a drunken maniac, and Cenred – a man _you_ described as ‘perfectly harmless’ – is currently smashing another man’s head into the wall for insulting Black Sabbath.”

“Oh dear,” Morgana said, sounding two parts concerned and one part amused. “I mean, no one should be insulting the Sabbath but-“

“Just get here soon!” Arthur snapped.

“The car’s in the garage! I could get you an Uber?”

“Oh never mind,” Arthur said and hung up in exasperation. He’d just have to make his own way home.

Then he took two steps out of the bathroom and ran smack into Cenred, and his night took yet another nosedive.

After a perilously fraught ride home on Cenred's motorbike which ended in a most unwanted pass, Arthur barely had the energy to take his clothes off before collapsing into bed. He spent most of Sunday lying there too, emerging only to order takeaway and drink a large quantity of vodka to numb the pain of the previous night’s disaster. Which helped for a bit, until he woke up on Monday with the mother of all hangovers.

To top it all off, he dragged himself into work only to find his computer had gone into safe mode and wouldn’t let him do anything.

Arthur contemplated banging his head down on the desk and smashing his keyboard into smithereens, but instead he picked up the phone.

“God, this week has gone on forever,” he said without preamble.

“Mate, it’s ten am on Monday,” Wizard said, seemingly unbothered by the lack of greeting.

“Don’t remind me,” Arthur said with a groan.

“Rough weekend?”

“Extremely. I haven’t checked with the Guinness Book of Records yet but I’m fairly certain I had the worst date of all time on Saturday night.”

“Can’t have,” Wizard said promptly. “I had the worst date of all time three years ago, with a flamenco dancer who claimed to be on the run from the Russian mob and then climbed out the window of the Nando’s we were in to stick me with the bill.”

“Well, if you will go on a date to Nando’s…”

“Oh, I knew you were a snob!”

“Guilty as charged. Although actually I just had a date in a biker bar so I should probably rethink my standards.”

“A biker bar!” Wizard said delightedly. “This I have to hear.”

Arthur sighed heavily.

“Basically I got dragged to a dive pub by a man in leather trousers, witnessed approximately eight hundred fights, then my date offered me a lift home and tried to feel me up at the traffic lights.”

Wizard gasped, which was rather gratifying. Morgana had been much less sympathetic.

“Were you alright?”

“Yeah, I jumped off the back, gave him an earful, and kicked his bike over for good measure. I don’t think he even noticed me leaving, he was too busy cooing over his precious Kawasaki.”

“What a scumbag,” Wizard said feelingly.

“I sure know who to pick ‘em,” Arthur said ruefully. “Wait, no, actually, my sister picked this one! Not my fault at all.”

Wizard sounded like he was trying to stifle a snigger.

“You let your sister pick your dates?”

“I can hear you snorting,” Arthur said imperiously, but it was without heat. He was well aware how ridiculous it might sound to a stranger. “And yes, I do. For reasons too odd to get into now.”

“Well, I think maybe you need a new matchmaker.”

“Anyone in mind?” Arthur said, leaning back in his chair. For the first time since Saturday night, the tension in his shoulders was beginning to ease.

“Hmm, pickings are slim down here. I could set you up with Gilli, if you love discussing the inherent superiority of Linux to Windows.”

“Pass,” Arthur said quickly. “I made a joke about coding to him at the office party once and he lectured me for half an hour about vipers.”

“Python?”

“Yeah, or that.”

“Well I’ll put Gilli on the backburner for now and keep a lookout down here, in case Ryan Gosling gets hired,” Wizard said cheerfully.

“I hear he _is_ looking for a new IT opportunity,” Arthur said and was rewarded with one of Wizard’s charmingly infectious laughs.

 

***

 

It had become some kind of strange ritual, to get in on a Monday morning and find some small pretext to call IT so he could update Wizard on whatever disastrous date he’d suffered through that weekend.

“-but yeah, bottom line, pivot tables are a proceed-with-caution kinda thing. I think that’s all from me-”

“Good, because we need to talk about George,” Arthur said promptly and Wizard snickered.

“Let me guess – the Boy Scout leader who owns five separate model railways wasn’t a great match for you.”

“A Scout leader is actually called an Akela,” Arthur informed him loftily. “And sadly George explaining that was possibly the most scintillating bit of conversation we had.”

“How do you pick these people?” Wizard mused, as he often did. Arthur didn’t feel like telling him that George’s profile pic on Tinder had showcased several visible knee bruises – which Arthur hoped at the time indicated a passion for sports, and which turned out to have been sustained in a particularly rambunctious game of ping pong.

“Ping pong’s fun!” Wizard said in protest after Arthur gave him a SSTC-edited version. “And I approve of the Scouts, actually, I think you’re just being mean.”

“Oh, well, feel free to take George’s number.”

“I’ll sadly decline. I’m off dating at the moment.”

“Still traumatised by the flamenco dancer?”

“Forever and always. I can’t even pass a Nando’s without crying.”

“Seriously though, are you just taking a break or-”

Arthur didn’t know why he felt compelled to ask – maybe it was because he’d been spilling his guts to Wizard for weeks without ever doing much in the way of reciprocation. But he was curious too.

“I’ve been sort of waiting for something. Er, someone, I guess. For a long time. But I don’t think… I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”

Wizard sounded wistful and Arthur felt bad. Not least because he knew that feeling very well.

“Here’s to being cat owning spinsters, I guess?”

“I do have a cat already,” Wizard said, perking up slightly. “So I’ve got a head start.”

“Damn, I better start trawling the shelters, wouldn’t want to fall behind.”

It was easy to laugh and joke when he was talking to Wizard, but in truth Arthur was becoming a little despondent. He’d been on more dates in the last three months than he had been in the last three years put together, and yet he felt further away from finding his soulmate than ever before. He was so low by the time he left work on Friday that he cancelled the casual drink he had planned with Morgana’s latest find Ethan and went home to bed instead. Saturday he spent most of on the couch, finally getting up to shower mid-afternoon to find a purple bruise spread across his right knee. He glared at it a while, feeling insulted somehow. If a bruise could be mocking, this one certainly was.

His bad mood kept up all weekend and he didn’t sleep Sunday night, tossing and turning in bed until the sun started filtering through the blinds. He bought a triple espresso on the way to work and texted Gwen asking her to make sure he didn’t doze off at his desk today. Her reply was sympathetic – _Why not take a day off?_ – but if Arthur took a day off every time his love life spiralled, he’d never be in work.

It was with this dispiriting thought that he picked up the phone to Wizard at quarter to eleven.

“And how was the weekend date?” Wizard asked. Arthur could hear him take a sip of something – tea or coffee? Tea, most likely, Wizard had enough pep not to need coffee. He was always so cheerful, so ready to laugh or make light of something. Why couldn’t Arthur be that way?

“I cancelled,” he said dolefully, suddenly feeling incredibly sorry for himself. Perhaps this Ethan had been Arthur’s one true love but he doubted it. It was beginning to look like finding his soulmate was an impossible task.

“Aw, no, how come?” Wizard said sympathetically.

“It’s… urgh, I just… I can’t face anymore of… urghhh,” Arthur said articulately. “Sorry Wizard, I’m throwing a pity party at the moment, maybe we should do your weekend instead.”

“Oh. Um, not a lot happened. Made dinner for a friend. Went to the cinema. Took my cat for a walk.”

Arthur wasn’t sure he’d heard that right.

“You took your _cat_ for a walk?”

“Ah, yeah. Unorthodox, I know, but Killy’s a bit of a special case. Essentially, he’s the fattest laziest cat in the world and he refuses to move off the sofa by himself, so I have to take him out on the lead.”

Arthur tried to picture Morgana’s cat Aithusa waiting patiently as they clipped a lead round her neck and shuddered. It had been a month long battle just to get her to wear the collar and he still had the scratches to prove it.

“Does he mind?” Arthur asked.

“Does he mind?” Wizard repeated in a long suffering tone. “Arthur, he absolutely _hates_ it. He pouts, he hisses, he sits down in the road and won’t get up. He whined so loud the other day that some woman threatened to call the RSPCA on me!”

Arthur couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh I’m glad you’re amused,” Wizard said, mock-sulkily. “Meanwhile my nerves are shot, I nearly knocked my knee out of joint when he yanked me into a bollard, and I’m pretty sure he’s planning to murder me in my sleep.”

Arthur laughed even louder.

“My dad always warned me that cats try to suck your breath out when you’re sleeping.”

“I always thought that was an old wives tale until I looked into Killy’s cold, dead eyes,” Wizard said dramatically. “Now I know it’s a matter of time before he jumps on my bed one night and suffocates me with his sheer size.”

“On the plus side, Avalon Inc. would throw you a nice big funeral,” Arthur pointed out.

“I hope you’d get the company lawyers to press charges against my cat too.”

“Sorry, Morgana loves cats too much to allow that to happen. She’d probably adopt him.”

“I’ll be frank with you Arthur, possibly the only thing scarier than Killy is your sister.”

Arthur leaned back in his chair.

“You wouldn’t be the first to live in fear of her. In fact, I’m pretty sure she genuinely used to try and steal my breath when I slept.”

“It’s a miracle you’re still with us,” Wizard said. “Now, have I cheered you up slightly?”

“You have, actually,” Arthur said, surprised to realise his spirits seemed definitively lifted.

“Glad to be of service. Listen I have to go roll out our new monitors but we’ll talk later?”

Arthur hung up smiling. It was amazing how much their little chats lifted his mood.

It was only minutes later when he was on his way out the door to the board meeting that he paused. Something Wizard had said in that conversation, something that sparked in the back of his mind…

But then Morgana was ushering him inside the board room and he forgot all about it.

 

***

 

Two hours later, Arthur returned to his office with only the intention of having a strong black coffee and dipping into his secret stash of Mars Bars. The chair of the board was well known for never using one word where twenty would do and Arthur always came out of those meetings nursing a mild headache. He was ready to flop down in his chair and click around on Twitter for a bit before work called again, but when he stepped into his office, there was someone there.

A male someone to be specific, bent under Arthur’s desk and fiddling with the extension lead. To be even more specific, a male someone with a really nice arse.

Still, pleasing rear or no, Arthur generally frowned upon strangers making hay in his personal space. He cleared his throat rather pointedly and the man jumped, banging his head on the underside of the desk. It made a resounding enough crack that for a moment Arthur’s own head twinged in sympathy.

“Ow. Hi. Ow,” the man said, crawling backwards and standing up, one hand rubbing his head. It also revealed his IT team badge, which made sense of the whole poking around Arthur’s office thing.

“Ah, you’re from IT. I’m Arthur, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Surprisingly the man’s face split into a wide grin, ignoring Arthur’s outstretched hand.

“You don’t recognise my voice?” he said teasingly.

“Er, should I?”

“Would it help if I did a magic trick?”

“Wizard!”

Arthur really should have put that together sooner. But he just hadn’t expected Wizard to look… like this. He’d imagined him a bit older, maybe with a beard and longer hair, like Cedric and Tauren and the rest of the IT guys. Wizard, however, was fit. No way around it. Slim and tall, with messy dark hair and high, sculpted cheekbones – just the kind of guy Arthur went for. He was wearing a pair of snugly fitting jeans and a smart blue button down, which happened to nicely complement the blue of his eyes. All in all, it was a bit of a shock to Arthur’s system to find the guy who’d been making him laugh over the phone for weeks was now making him drool in person. And they’d been flirting! If Arthur had known this was how Wizard had looked, he’d have been dialling up the charm even more.

Stupidly, Arthur’s hand was still out in mid-air; he started to retract before Wizard took it in his own.

“Nice to meet you face to face,” he said warmly. “And I’m actually called Merlin, if we’re being official.”

“Are you serious?”

Wizard – _Merlin_ – grimaced.

“I did tell you I was nicknamed Wizard for a different reason.”

“I like it,” Arthur said quickly and Merlin beamed at him.

“Ah, you’re just trying to keep me sweet so I carry on fixing your computer.”

“You see right through me,” Arthur said, enjoying the fact that Merlin’s voice hadn’t lost the flirtatious tone he used on the phone. He also enjoyed the sight of Merlin bending back over to pick up Arthur’s old monitor, though he sadly straightened up far too quickly.

“Your new one’s all set up, let me know if you have any problems with it. You might find that- ah!”

Merlin’s fingers slipped on the side of the monitor and before Arthur could reach out, the whole thing fell from Merlin’s hands and landed right on his foot.

“Ow!”

“Are you alright?” Arthur said, alarmed, but Merlin looked more embarrassed than injured.

“Yeah, you get used to it when you’re as clumsy as me. Another bruise to add to the collection.”

Arthur's heart skipped a beat. It was like a bolt of lightning coming down to strike him where he stood. Suddenly, wonderfully, everything slotted right into place.

“Br-bruise,” he stammered but Merlin was already heading to the door.

“I think I better leave the monitor carrying to Gilli. It’s good for him to get out of the basement actually, honestly I sometimes think he-”

Merlin’s voice faded out. All Arthur could concentrate on was his lips moving, how soft and inviting they looked, how radiant he suddenly seemed. It was like the world around them had ground to a halt. All those times he’d heard Merlin bang his elbow down the phone or mention some injury he’d sustained over the weekend. Could this possibly be…

He dimly registered Merlin saying goodbye and he made to follow him from the office when a voice in his head whispered _be sure._ Fingers shaking, Arthur bent down to slip off his shoe and throw off his sock.

There, clear as day, was a red band stretching across his foot. It hadn’t been there this morning. It hadn’t even been there ten minutes ago. It hadn’t been there until Merlin had put it there.

Goosebumps were breaking out on Arthur’s arm. The world sped up again and he shoved his shoe back on before sprinting out into the main office, in hot pursuit of Merlin.

He was stood ten feet away next to Gwen’s desk, chatting away with her. Mouth dry, Arthur caught up with them. Merlin turned around, a smile spreading across his face, looking more lovely than Arthur could ever have imagined his soulmate to look.

God, this was it. The first words he’d ever say to Merlin in the knowledge that he truly was Arthur’s soulmate. The first words that would start their new lives together. The first words that would seal their romantic destiny forever…

“Take off your shoe!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Second chapter coming shortly. And check out Rogue37 on Tumblr: merlination.tumblr.com!


	2. Chapter 2

The whole office fell silent but Arthur really didn’t care. He was only focussed on Merlin, whose smile was looking slightly strained now.

“What?”

“Take off your shoe!” Arthur repeated, ignoring the scandalised look Gwen was shooting him. There was no time for faffing around, damnit, he had a soulmate to claim.

“I’m not sure I underst-“

“Take it off!”

Merlin was steadily backing away from Arthur and Gwen had got up out of her seat.

“Are you alright, Arthur?” she said carefully. “Do you need to sit down?”

“No, I need him to take his shoe off!”

“Is this a joke?” Merlin said, looking around plaintively. “I know I’ve not been here long, so if you’re trying to haze the new guy…”

“It’s not a joke, Arthur’s lost the plot,” Vivian from Accounts said gleefully and Arthur shot her a glare because he had not lost the plot at all, surely this was the only rational way of showing Merlin the truth…

“Have you hit your head, Arthur?” Gwen said, trying to usher him onto the sofa.

“No! _He’s_ hit his foot!”

“So this is first aid?” Merlin said helplessly. “Because you’re being a bit over-zealous about it-”

“Take your shoe off!” Arthur said, stepping towards him.

“Gwen!” Merlin squeaked, practically climbing onto Gwen’s chair as though Arthur was a mouse running at his feet.

“Arthur, you can’t make employees take their shoes off-”

“You don’t understand!” Arthur said desperately. “Look, I’ll take mine off too!”

He reached down to tug off his loafer and started to pull at his sock. The motion overbalanced him slightly and he hopped into Gwen’s desk. Merlin shrieked, wrapping around the back of Gwen’s chair like a monkey and propelling himself away from Arthur.

“What is happening?” 

“I’m so Instagramming this,” Vivian said from behind them.

“Viv, stop filming. Arthur, put your shoe back on!”

Arthur finally succeeded in getting his sock off. He waved his foot at Merlin in relief, because surely he’d understand now.

“Look! Look at my foot!”

Merlin had grabbed a mousepad from Gwen’s desk and was holding it in front of himself like a shield.

“I don’t want to look at your foot!”

“Look at it!”

“Gwen!”

“Arthur!”

“MERLIN!”

“Just what the hell is going on here?”

The office fell silent for the second time as Morgana came striding across the floor, her face like thunder.

“I am _trying_ to conduct a phone interview and all I can hear is the kind of noise more commonly found at a KINDERGARTEN.”

Even Arthur quailed a little at the tone in his sister’s voice.

“Vivian, why is your phone out in work time? Merlin, get off Gwen’s chair. Arthur…”

For a moment words seemed to fail Morgana.

“Arthur, why in God’s name are you barefoot?”

Arthur opened his mouth to explain but Merlin got in first.

“He went mad! He’s trying to make me take my shoe off! And he keeps waving his foot at me!”

Morgana looked completely perplexed and Arthur had to admit it did sound a bit insane laid out like that. But he had good reason!

“Morgana, he dropped a monitor on his foot,” he said, trying to sound as calm as possible. “Ten seconds later, look what appears on mine.”

Morgana’s eyes flickered down to his bare foot, her brow still furrowed. Arthur hoped like hell she’d piece it together by herself because he was struggling to articulate it any better.

“He’s not making any sense,” Merlin said, sounding vaguely hysterical. “I don’t know what’s going on here but-”

“Don’t worry, Merlin, I’ll sort this right now,” Morgana interrupted and Merlin breathed a visible sigh of relief.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now take off your shoe.”

“Morgana!” Gwen cried.

“Not you too,” Merlin moaned.

“The Pendragons have flipped out,” Vivian stage-whispered and was quelled with a single look from Morgana.

“Back to work everyone, _now_. Merlin, Arthur – my office.”

“I’m not coming without Gwen,” Merlin said, eyes darting back and forth between Arthur and Morgana like he couldn’t decide who was crazier.

Morgana rolled her eyes.

“Fine, Gwen can come.”

Arthur awkwardly hobbled towards Morgana’s office, acutely aware he was still one shoe down. He was also becoming acutely aware that he may have just completely lost it in front of the entire office, and that running round insisting Merlin remove his shoe might not have been the most sensible way he could have introduced their soulmate bond.

He risked a look back at Merlin who was a few paces behind, clinging on to Gwen’s arm. Hopefully it wasn’t too late to make amends…

“Have a seat,” Morgana said when they were safely inside with the door shut. Merlin shook his head.

“Someone needs to tell me what’s going on, right now.”

Arthur rather hoped Morgana might take the reins at this point but she gave him a meaningful look.

“I think this should come from you, Arthur.”

Damnit, she was right. Arthur took a deep breath, fixing his eyes on Merlin.

“I’m sorry for the shoe thing. I was just shocked because… because…”

He groped for the words.

“I have SSTC,” he said in a sudden rush of inspiration, because surely Merlin had the exact same diagnosis and could put the rest together himself. But Merlin looked totally nonplussed.

“SSTC? Sympathetic Soft Tissue Contusion? You might have heard of it…”

Arthur trailed off, because the expression on Merlin’s face said loud and clear he’d never heard the term in his life.

“It’s… it’s a soulkin condition,” he said, faltering all of a sudden because God, what if he’d got this wrong? It might all have been a huge coincidence; Merlin might not be his soulmate at all.

The thought of that was so unexpectedly upsetting that it gave Arthur the confidence to speak on.

“It means bruise sharing. My soulmate’s bruises have been popping up on my body since I was eighteen years old. But I’ve never been able to track them down. And then today… you dropped that monitor on your foot and…”

Out of words, he simply lifted his bare foot to show the red bruise across it.

“That wasn’t there before, Merlin,” he said quietly. “I think you put it there. I think you’re my-”

He couldn’t quite bring himself to say it, too choked by the fear he might be wrong. Merlin was staring at him wide-eyed, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I don’t… I don’t have a soulkin connection,” he said dazedly. “I’ve never heard of this ‘SSTC’ thing.”

“Are you sure?” Arthur pressed. “Never had any bruises that you couldn’t explain? That just appeared as if by magic?”

“No! I mean… maybe a few times in uni, but I’m clumsy at the best of times and I was going out drinking so I just assumed…”

“I played rugby in uni,” Arthur said, heart beating faster. “I gave it up after, I don’t do much that causes bruises anymore.”

Merlin was looking at him helplessly.

“I don’t have a soulkin connection,” he repeated. “I always wanted one but nothing ever… I never…”

“I took a shower on Saturday and found a massive bruise on my knee,” Arthur said. “About 3pm. What time did your cat pull you into that bollard?”

Merlin’s mouth was opening and closing rapidly.

“I’ve got a bump forming on my head from when you smacked it on my desk not ten minutes ago,” Arthur rushed on, because he hadn’t even noticed until now but sure enough he reached up with his hand and there it was.

Merlin shook his head.

“I never…”

“A month ago you stubbed your toe so badly mine was purple for three days,” Arthur said but Merlin didn’t stop shaking his head.

“It’s not possible,” he near-whispered and Arthur felt his heart clench.

“I got a black eye in February,” he said urgently. “Where did it come from? I was so worried. I was so worried about my soulmate. About… you.”

Merlin’s eyes filled with tears then and for a long moment they just looked at each other, as though there was no one in the world but them.

Then Merlin let out a long shaky breath.

“I threw a drink at some homophobe in The Kings Arms and he punched me in the face,” he said. Then he reached down and unlaced his shoe, slipping it off to reveal a thin red band stretching across his foot, a perfect match for Arthur’s.

“Oh my God,” Arthur said, and his own eyes filled up.

He was dimly aware of Morgana and Gwen slipping from the room but he only had eyes for Merlin.

“I can’t believe you’re finally here.”

“Me? It’s you that’s… I’d given up on you, you great prat,” Merlin said, smiling through the tears.

“Why?”

“There were no signs of you and I thought… I thought maybe you weren’t coming.”

Arthur was moving across the room before he could stop himself and this time Merlin didn’t back away.

“I swear I’ve been looking for you this whole time. All those awful dates I went on…”

“You were looking for me?”

“Yes, and all I had to go on was this.”

Arthur gestured to his foot and Merlin broke into a grin.

“You were dating bruised men! That’s why they were all so weird!”

“And why I let Morgana pick them!”

“It all makes sense now,” Merlin said and he’d stopped crying, though he still looked shell shocked. Arthur was still reeling a little himself.

“All that time on the phone with you, and I never suspected,” he said.

“We should have met in person, you’d have seen me trip over within five minutes and figured it out.”

Arthur laughed.

“Well, to be honest, I was enjoying flirting with you even before we met.”

“Me too,” Merlin said. “And it was nice to help out a damsel in distress with my vast knowledge.”

“Oi!” Arthur protested. “Shame you couldn’t help your own clumsiness all these years. You’ve inflicted terrible things on my body!”

“You’re right,” Merlin said, and there was a sudden glint in his eye. “Perhaps I should kiss it better.”

There was only one response to that. Arthur took a step forward and Merlin did the same and then they were meeting in the middle, their lips pressing against each other’s.

It was wonderful. Not because it was the perfect kiss, not because they melded together in perfect harmony or any of that. It was wonderful because it was real and it was them and they had found each other. Arthur couldn’t have asked for anything better.

 

***

 

Morgana sent them home for the day, clearly sensing that the kissing was not going to abate anytime soon, and sure enough they barely drew apart in the cab home. Arthur had suggested his flat, as it was free of any half-naked roommates to kill the mood, and Merlin had readily assented.

He felt almost shy bringing Merlin through the front door. His flat was a reflection of him, of his personality, and hopefully a place that Merlin would be spending a lot more time at in the future.

“So, this is the living room-” he barely had chance to say before Merlin was shoving him up against the wall and capturing his lips in a kiss.

It didn’t take Arthur long to get with the programme. The grand tour could wait, right now he was more than willing to explore Merlin’s body instead.

He brought one hand up to gently tug at Merlin’s hair, loving how soft it felt between his fingers. Merlin let out a tiny gasp and then attacked Arthur’s lips with fervour, his hand sliding down to clutch Arthur’s hip.

Arthur let Merlin push him against the wall a while longer, enjoying the feel of strong hands keeping him in place. Then he reversed their positions and swept Merlin off his feet before he could protest, pinning him in place against the wall. Merlin adjusted quickly, wrapping his legs round Arthur’s waist and letting himself be held there. Arthur sucked a kiss into Merlin’s neck and Merlin moaned, almost inaudibly. The sound went straight to Arthur’s cock and he chased it again, sucking hard enough to leave a mark on the delicate skin of Merlin’s collarbone.

“Trying to bruise me, are you?”

“You’ve left enough on me,” Arthur said, grinning. He licked over the new-made love-bite and Merlin squirmed with pleasure. He did it again, because call Arthur possessive but there was something insanely hot about marking Merlin’s skin; about claiming him the way Merlin had claimed him with that first bruise ten years ago.

He wrapped his arms around Merlin’s back and carried him away from the wall – tempting though it was to do it right there and then, he figured their first time should probably be in a bed at least.

They didn’t stop kissing all the way into the bedroom. Then Arthur stumbled on the rug and they both fell down on the bed, breathless with laughter. Merlin rolled over so they were face to face and they stayed like that for a second, panting. Arthur’s chest was suddenly tight but in all the right ways; overwhelmed by how beautiful this man was, how wonderful he made Arthur feel. They were soulmates and this would only be the first time of many that they’d make love like this.

He leaned in to kiss Merlin briefly, just a soft brush of their lips together, and Merlin’s eyes crinkled with happiness.

“C’mere,” he said softly and Arthur obeyed, drawing him into another lingering kiss.

Merlin’s hands began to wander down Arthur’s body and Arthur felt himself beginning to harden again. He reached to undo the buttons on Merlin’s shirt and Merlin sat up to help him, divesting himself of the top and then tugging at Arthur’s in turn. Soon they were both topless and Arthur rubbed his thumb over Merlin’s nipple, enjoying how quickly it peaked under his touch. Merlin shivered and climbed into Arthur’s lap, getting close enough for Arthur to dip his head down. He mouthed at Merlin’s nipples, swiping his tongue across them until Merlin bucked beneath him, grinding into Arthur’s lap.

Arthur’s cock was at full attention now and feeling increasingly confined by his work trousers; he undid his zipper and Merlin caught the idea, crawling off his lap to pull them off. He made short work of Arthur’s boxers too; not that Arthur protested when Merlin did the same to his own, climbing back onto Arthur’s lap only when he was gloriously naked.

Arthur groaned aloud at the feel of their cocks rubbing together. He pulled Merlin closer and buried his face in Merlin’s hair, inhaling his sweet scent. He wanted to touch all of Merlin at once, feel his soft skin, listen to all the little noises he made, the hitches in his breath. Arthur was consumed by desire, full of need and love and longing.

Merlin started to rock back and forth, directly on Arthur’s cock, and Arthur whimpered. He knew he wouldn’t last long like this but Merlin’s expression seemed to say that was okay, that they’d have plenty more goes at this in the years to come. The thought relaxed Arthur and he gave himself over to pleasure, shutting his eyes to concentrate on the exquisite feel of Merlin moving against him.

He rested his head on Merlin’s shoulder, biting off a moan when Merlin slipped his hand down to take hold of Arthur’s cock. A rush of heat flooded him and he gripped Merlin’s thighs before coming with a drawn out sigh. Merlin held him through it, kissing his neck, the side of his face, the corner of his lips. Arthur breathed him in, letting Merlin’s touch ground him, feeling safer than he’d ever felt before.

When he’d recovered himself, he pushed Merlin onto his back and used his hand to finish him off. Merlin’s hips jerked as he came, his breath stuttering, body leaning up towards Arthur. Arthur lay down beside him and stroked his hair, muttering soft nonsense words as Merlin cooled down from his high. He looked so beautiful – flushed pink and hair damp with sweat, eyelids fluttering. Arthur could almost weep for how happy he was in that moment.

But he laughed instead and Merlin laughed too and then they were making for the shower, kissing each other all the way, content and elated and so damn grateful to finally be united. And peering into the mirror after, seeing the mark he’d sucked into Merlin’s skin on his own neck, Arthur knew all the waiting had been worth it.

Merlin had been worth it.

 

 

The next morning, Arthur found out he’d made it onto one of the reality TV shows dedicated to adorable soulmate matches after all. Unfortunately it was in the LOL Soulmate Fail section at the end, heavily featuring Vivian’s phone video of Arthur chasing Merlin round the office demanding he take his shoe off.

Uther would be furious. But Arthur found – with Merlin tucked into his side all soft and sweet and entirely his – he couldn’t bring himself to mind too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! And thank you again to the lovely Rogue37 <3


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